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Amazon caves in, will remove ads from Kindle Fire for $15 fee

Newly announced option will strip ads from home and lock screens.

After widespread criticism, Amazon has changed its mind about those home and lock screen ads on the new Kindle Fires. Yesterday, Amazon insisted that all Kindle Fires will come with "special offers" on the home screens and lock screens, and that unlike with Kindle e-readers, the Fire won’t provide any option to remove the ads with an extra payment.

But just now, we received confirmation from Amazon that it has decided to let customers pay $15 to opt out of the ads. "With Kindle Fire HD there will be a special offers opt-out option for $15," an Amazon spokesperson told Ars. "We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice."

The Kindle Fire product pages haven’t been updated to reflect the $15 offer. With Kindle e-readers, customers unsubscribe from special offers through a Web browser, rather than from the device itself.

The Amazon statement specifies "Kindle Fire HD," but there is one new Fire that is not advertised as HD, a $159 entry-level option. Amazon told us the $15 opt-out will be available for the non-HD Fire as well.

Promoted Comments

I hope they've improved the remembrance of the no-ads feature. My kindle keyboard forgets I paid them off every time I let the battery die completely and after the one time it crashed and needed a hard reboot.

I hope they've improved the remembrance of the no-ads feature. My kindle keyboard forgets I paid them off every time I let the battery die completely and after the one time it crashed and needed a hard reboot.

It seem to me that the super quick turn-around says that Amazon had this plan all the time. They know by putting up these hoops you have to go to and even again with paying the extortion when the thing reboots or battery dies. Tell them they have to pay more for no ads because of the lower price of the device and when you do pay more for no ads, the system annoys the hell out of you, by making the ads reappear making you jump through the hoops over and over again, so that you give up. Sly case of double dipping extortion while trying to now take the high road. Wake up people!

"We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out."

I have a feeling people don't opt out of Special Offers because they (like me) just purchase the Kindle without special offers if they don't want to see ads. Why take the extra step of opting out when the cost is the same?

I hope they've improved the remembrance of the no-ads feature. My kindle keyboard forgets I paid them off every time I let the battery die completely and after the one time it crashed and needed a hard reboot.

This is the type of bug that makes me afraid to buy a Kindle. Are bugs like this common?

We contacted Amazon, and have received confirmation that Bing will indeed be the default search engine. Amazon told us that users can switch to Google or Yahoo if they'd like.

Amazon also has a public statement on users' ability to choose the default search engine.

"All text you enter in Amazon Silk's address bar is sent to a default search engine," Amazon writes in the Amazon Silk browser terms and conditions, updated yesterday. "The initial default search engine is selected by Amazon Silk, and we may change the default search engine in the future without notice to you. If you would like, you may choose to use a different search provider as your default search engine. The privacy policy of the selected default search engine applies to information sent to it."

I hope they've improved the remembrance of the no-ads feature. My kindle keyboard forgets I paid them off every time I let the battery die completely and after the one time it crashed and needed a hard reboot.

This is the type of bug that makes me afraid to buy a Kindle. Are bugs like this common?

The new PaperWhite model looks awesome but it sounds like Amazon doesn't know how to write good software... I think I'm going to stick with my LCD based reader.

Amazon is a really good software writer. I use their various iOS and PC apps in addition to the new kindle touch and will rate their software very highly.

As for the ads-free version of the fire, even factoring in the price to remove KSO, it's still cheaper than the competition. It does seem like they had this option on standby just in case the blowback from not having that option was significant.

To me, this seems to be something that should be a checkbox in settings and not a $15 surcharge.

Why? Some people would rather save the $15. Under your system everyone would just pay more.

No, the way I see it is everyone pays the same lower price and has the option to not receive the ads by checking a box. When I buy a device I usually sign up to emails to see what deals get sent and if I don't want to see the deals, I unsubscribe from the email but it doesn't cost $15 to do so. The fact the Kindle comes with ads is neither here nor there to me but the $15 thing just seems strange.

No, the way I see it is everyone pays the same lower price and has the option to not receive the ads by checking a box. When I buy a device I usually sign up to emails to see what deals get sent and if I don't want to see the deals, I unsubscribe from the email but it doesn't cost $15 to do so. The fact the Kindle comes with ads is neither here nor there to me but the $15 thing just seems strange.

you're assuming the price would stay the same instead of going up $15 if it there was a checkbox to opt out of ads. If Amazon was selling this at a loss, and not ad subsidized, then the price would most likely go up if you didn't need to pay to opt out, just like their previous Kindles vs ad supported Kindles.

No, the way I see it is everyone pays the same lower price and has the option to not receive the ads by checking a box. When I buy a device I usually sign up to emails to see what deals get sent and if I don't want to see the deals, I unsubscribe from the email but it doesn't cost $15 to do so. The fact the Kindle comes with ads is neither here nor there to me but the $15 thing just seems strange.

you're assuming the price would stay the same instead of going up $15 if it there was a checkbox to opt out of ads. If Amazon was selling this at a loss, and not ad subsidized, then the price would most likely go up if you didn't need to pay to opt out, just like their previous Kindles vs ad supported Kindles.

Oh definitely the price would go up those $15 if the checkbox option was there. I suppose I was commenting from a more idealistic point of view. If it were me, I'd like to think I would do it my way but if it were my money on the line in the real world I would possibly go the way Amazon did.

Mine certainly has some huge rough edges (the keyboard autocorrect is a sad joke compared to the autocorrect on my Nokia Lumia, for example), but I consider it $200 well spent because of all the use I got out of it this past year. Until the Nexus 7 was released, there wasn't a whole lot that gave you the same bang for your buck. The homescreen UI sucks, and the browser has some weird issues like always wanting to reload tabs I closed days or weeks before, but it gets the job done for my main tablet tasks of web, books, comics, and video. I'm torn about upgrading, however. I might go for a 7" iPad if that winds up being real and having a competitive price, especially now that Amazon Instant Video is available for iOS, or I might grab a Nexus, or I might go for a Kindle HD 8.9" if the reviews are good when the final hardware ships in November. I'm really curious if the new ICS based software fixes a lot of my annoyances with the original.

"We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out."

I have a feeling people don't opt out of Special Offers because they (like me) just purchase the Kindle without special offers if they don't want to see ads. Why take the extra step of opting out when the cost is the same?

I took their statement to mean very few people buy the kindle without special offers as well. You're still opting out, you just do it when you buy.

I'm at a loss here, but why would I spend money on this Kindle Fire when for the same price I can get a full featured Nexus 7 and just put the Kindle app and Amazon Prime app on it?

I could see possibly the Kindle PaperWhite...as it's small and light and can go for a long time on a single charge. But the Fire just doesn't seem viable to me anymore after Google hit it out of the ballpark with the Nexus 7.

What the actual frak? Can a Kindle Fire not be unlocked and fitted with a custom ROM that doesn't have the adware? My phone came with various Motorola spyware, and my wife's and brother's still have them, but I'm unlocked and happily running CM10. I know, apples and oranges, but I thought I heard the Fire (the first one) was unlocked and running ROMs. Was I thinking of the Nook?

The new Fire is dirt cheap. $160 -- or $175 if you buy off the ads -- is pretty cheap. They're either undercutting Google by $25 or $40 on the Nexus 7. And let's face it, most people won't care about removing the ads. I know my wife doesn't care about the little banner ads in her apps. I've told her, it's stupidly easy to root that phone, then you can run AdAway... she just doesn't care enough for me to take 2 minutes to do it. (There's no moral reason to keep the ads, just apathy.) And I've heard some say that the "Kindle With Special Offers" ads are not only non-intrusive, but they have some pretty wicked deals. But I would want to know: Do the ads display all the time, on the home screen, and in every app, including the ad-supported ones? Or just on the lock screen? Really, how big a deal is this, tackiness aside?

Ads? I have never bought a Kindle or tablet-slash-book-reader, and now that I see this, I never will if it has ads on it. And no, I will not be appeased by having the PAY to get rid of ads once I have boughtthe product.

Ads? I have never bought a Kindle or tablet-slash-book-reader, and now that I see this, I never will if it has ads on it. And no, I will not be appeased by having the PAY to get rid of ads once I have boughtthe product.

It's 5:15 am on the East coast and 2:15 am in California. By the fact that you're posting now, chances are that you weren't gonna be buying the Kindle anyway.

We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice.

If customers love the ads so much, why make them pay to get rid of them? It's a bit hypocritical: either customers like the ads but can remove them for free or hate the ads and can pay for the convenience of not having them (just like most websites that offer a premium ad-free browsing experience). Amazon is blatantly telling everyone it is both having its cake and eating it.

I'm sure as hell not buying one of these, even if they eventually do remove the $15 fee. It's demonstrated to me that Amazon has not produced the Kindle in a spirit of innovation but instead to have an extra conduit to advertise on in the customer's hands.

these trinkets of modern living are a vain attempt to 'publish' great writers works, but without printing a normal BOOK that would have NO advertising on every third page.

Amazon is simply replacing the normal daily newspaper (remember those old things?) that were loaded with ad content, with a very expensive ad delivery platform that breaks easily, isn't foldable, can't be used for ancillary toilet purposes, and is a theft target.

the price differential between the 16gb to 32gb units is ludicrous. whats the price difference for the same size flash drives you use other wise? it's a manufacturing chip part number change, nothing else, trivial!

Amazon, just like Apple, have become experts at exploiting the naivete of the consumers.

I'm at a loss here, but why would I spend money on this Kindle Fire when for the same price I can get a full featured Nexus 7 and just put the Kindle app and Amazon Prime app on it?

I could see possibly the Kindle PaperWhite...as it's small and light and can go for a long time on a single charge. But the Fire just doesn't seem viable to me anymore after Google hit it out of the ballpark with the Nexus 7.

Maybe for less techy people?

If you are up in the air, I would wait to see what B&N does this fall. The Nook Color was a hot, cheap device before Kindle or Nexus existed. The Nook Tablet, IMO, spanked the Kindle Fire but suffered from a much smaller app store. (And by smaller, I mean pretty tiny.) Nonetheless it wasn't long before the Nook was rooted and you could install whatever app store and reader you wanted.

The Nook app store is better than it was but still smaller. A newer Nook tablet *may* leapfrog the Fire and Nexus without the downside, and will probably be rooted as quickly as the others.

<...>the price differential between the 16gb to 32gb units is ludicrous. whats the price difference for the same size flash drives you use other wise? it's a manufacturing chip part number change, nothing else, trivial!

Amazon, just like Apple, have become experts at exploiting the naivete of the consumers.

and we wonder why there's a deficit running wild in our economy?

You're right that $70 is a lot for 16GB, considering that flash drives of those sizes would differ by $10. Apple charges $100 for the same upgrade. However, Amazon does offer a much lower pricepoint, such that they likely sell the lower memory model at cost, and the higher one at a modest profit comparing favorably to the average for the industry. One should also appreciate that unlike the Nexus 7 that comes with only 16GB max, Amazon gives you better options.